Django Unchained, Reservoir Dogs, Inside Man and Do the Right Thing

In this piece, I am going to be comparing and analysing two Quentin Tarantino films (Django Unchained and Reservoir Dogs) and two Spike Lee films (Do the Right Thing and Inside Man).

Reservoir Dogs was produced on 15 January, 1993 and it is a crime, drama film directed and written by Quentin Tarantino and produced by Lawrence Bender with Live Entertainment and Dog Eat Dog Productions Inc. Django Unchained is Tarantino’s most recent film and it is a western crime drama, produced on the 18 January, 2013 by Reginald Hudlin and Stacey Sher with Weinstein Company and Columbia Pictures. It is interesting to see how the production companies and producers have changed from Tarantino's first feature film to his most recent one, especially as Lawrence Bender has produced a lot of his films. Spike Lee’s film, Do the Right Thing on the other hand was produced on the 23 June, 1989. It is a crime, drama, comedy, social realism film also written and produced by Spike Lee along with 40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks. Inside Man is a slightly more recent film, produced on the 24 March, 2006 by Brian Grazer with 40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks. It was written by Russell Gewirtz and it covers the genres of crime, drama and thriller. The name, 40 Acres & A Mule relates strongly to Spike Lee because the phrase was used throughout the South after the American Civil War and it asserts the right of newly freed African Americans to redistributed lands. Lee was brought up as an African American and his ancestors were slaves so the name of his production company is personal to him and also relates to the themes expressed in his films.

These four films share fairly similar genres and crime appears in all of them but it is explored in different ways. Django Unchained is about a freed slave, Django (Jamie Foxx) who is trained by Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) to become his deputy bounty hunter with the promise that he will help rescue Django’s wife, Broomhilda (Kerry Washington) from plantation owner, Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio). One of the genres is crime because they violently seek revenge on those carrying bounties until they are eventually led to the location of Broomhilda. Very differently, Do the Right Thing is set on the hottest day of the year in Brooklyn, New York. It stars Spike Lee (Mookie), Danny Aiello (Sal), Ossie Davis (Da Mayor), Giancarlo Esposito (Buggin’ out) and Bill Nunn (Radio Raheem). Everyone’s anger and frustration builds up and explodes into violence which brings out the worse in everyone and especially towards the end, various crimes take place which include fights, murders and racial slurs. Reservoir Dogs and Inside Man are very similar regarding concept and genre because they are both about heists, Reservoir Dogs being a jewellery robbery and Inside Man being a bank robbery, which turn out to be more complicated than planned. The robbery in Reservoir Dogs goes completely wrong and only four survive of the six criminals and when they gather together, they begin to suspect that one of them in an undercover police officer. The narrative is non-linear and it stars Harvey Keitel (Mr White), Tim Roth (Mr Orange), Michael Madsen (Mr Blonde), Steve Buscemi (Mr Pink) and Lawrence Tierney (Joe Cabot). The narrative of Inside Man is also non-linear and from a cell, Dalton Russell (Clive Owen) tells the audience about his perfectly planned heist which leads into a hostage situation in which the intensity is increased due to the involvement of police detectives Keith Frazier (Denzel Washington) and Bill Mitchell (Chiwetal Ejiofor), the banks president, Arthur Case (Christopher Plummer) and high power broker, Madeleine White (Jodie Foster).

The budgets for the four films definitely differ, with the later films of Django Unchained and Inside Man having the larger budgets due to Quentin Tarantino and Spike Lee being more established film makers at this point so could be more confident about making a larger amount of money in the box office. The budget for Django Unchained was the largest at $100,000,000 and it made an incredible $425.4 million in the box office which is much more than Inside Man which made $184.4 million in the box office after having a budget of $45,000,000. Reservoir Dogs and Do the Right Thing of course had lower budgets as they were the earlier films of Tarantino and Spike but as Reservoir Dogs was Tarantino’s first feature film, it did not do as well as Do the Right Thing. RD had a budget of $1,200,000 and it made $2.8 million in the box office whereas DTRT had a budget of $6,500,000 and made $37.3 million in the box office. When comparing these statistics, you can really see how the directors have improved and become more established, especially Quentin Tarantino as he went from $2.8 million to $425.4 million in the space of 20 years, whereas Spike Lee only went from $37.3 million to $45 million in the space of 17 years.

These films have been rated very highly by critics, although I would personally rate them all slightly higher. Django Unchained was given 8.5/10 from IMDb and 88% from Rotten Tomatoes in which the site also gave an audience score of 91%. Los Angeles Times, Betsy Sharkey said: “In "Django," Tarantino is a man unchained, creating his most articulate, intriguing, provoking, appalling, hilarious, exhilarating, scathing and downright entertaining film yet.” However Movieline, Alison Willmore said “The film also comes across like a rough cut that was never looked at as a coherent whole, and some segments that start off as promising become interminable while others feel entirely unnecessary. There's no pressure on or expectation for Tarantino to please anyone other than himself, and the film feels overstuffed with ideas that should have been pruned.” Reservoir Dogs also achieved a high score from IMDb at 8.4/10 and Rotten Tomatoes gave it 92% with an audience reception of 94%. The Globe and Mail (Toronto), Rick Groen said: “Reservoir Dogs sizzles - it's dynamite on a short fuse, and you watch it with mesmerized fascination, simultaneously attracted and repelled by the explosion you know will come.” However Wall Street Journal, Julie Salamon said: “The only thing Mr. Tarantino spells out is the violence. I have seen much more blood spilled, yet I felt sickened by the coldness of this picture's visual cruelty.”

Inside Man was given 7.7/10 from IMDb and 86% from Rotten Tomatoes with an audience reception of 85%. The Hollywood Reporter, Kirk Honeycutt said: “This is the mother lode all action/suspense directors search for and Lee, who usually doesn't work in that genre, has hit it.” However Dallas Observer, Michael Atkinson said: “Inside Man is irrelevant, another semi-high-tech mega-heist movie, the rhythms and tropes of which we are all as familiar with as we are with the wallpaper facing our toilets.” Do the Right Thing was given 7.9/10 from IMDb and 92% from Rotten Tomatoes with an audience reception of 90%. The Chicago Sun-Times, Sheila Benson said: “It comes closer to reflecting the current state of race relations in America than any other movie of our time.” However Time, Richard Corliss said: “To accept the film, though, one must first understand its point of view, and that is maddeningly difficult. All we know for certain is that Do the Right Thing is not naturalistic.”

Django Unchained definitely shares many similarities with Inglorious Basterds in terms of revenge and extreme violence. In both, the protagonist/s brutally defeats their antagonist to result in a somewhat happy ending for them. Reservoir Dogs shares the intense secrecy that IB uses and the idea of ‘going behind someone’s back’ so to conclude, Quentin Tarantino’s films are easily recognisable. When compared to Miracle at St. Anna, Inside Man is completely different and does not necessarily explore deep and meaningful issues that revolve around race unlike Do the Right Thing, which explores racial stereotypes. However, I have noticed that Spike Lee’s films use black protagonists which make his films much more personal to him and he is constantly taking a patriotic approach.

In conclusion, I thoroughly enjoyed each of these four films because they had strong themes, gripping narratives and well developed characters so I would definitely recommend them to someone. I was already a fan of Tarantino’s work so had high expectations for Reservoir Dogs and Django Unchained which were met but I was pleasantly surprised by Do the Right Thing and Inside Man because I did not expect to enjoy them as much as I did so I have warmed to the work of Spike Lee. Overall however, my favourite film of the four was by far Django Unchained because the performances were absolutely incredible, especially Christoph Waltz who is a main antagonist in Inglorious Basterds, and the intriguing narrative was enhanced by the extreme violence, a common trademark of Tarantino’s films.  

Quentin Tarantino VS Spike Lee

Quentin Tarantino 


Who is he?

Quentin Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter, cinematographer, producer and actor, born in Knoxville, Tennessee on 27 March, 1963. He was born to nurse, Connie and an Italian-American actor and musician, Tony Tarantino. Quentin Tarantino has had a love for films from a young age and he grew up in South Los Angeles with his Mother who took him to the cinema from the age of around 6. He saw films such as Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein, The Wild Bunch, Carnal Knowledge and Deliverance which were all inspirations for him, especially Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein. 

Where did he train?

Quentin Tarantino studied at Narbonne High School and Alexander Fleming Middle School however, he hated his time in education and would easily choose watching films over studying. When Tarantino was aged 22, he got a job at the Video Archives in Manhattan Beach in which he wrote the scripts for True Romance (in 1987) and Natural Born Killers (in 1988). In 1990, he made $50,000 for the True Romance script and he used this money to make the script for Reservoir Dogs with his friends as the main characters. Soon after, Tarantino left the Video Archives and he met Lawrence Bender (who now is often the producer for Tarantino's films) when doing rewrites for a small Hollywood production company called CineTel. Lawrence knew Harvey Keitel who saw and was impressed by the Reservoir Dogs script so raised more finance for it as well as helping Tarantino with casting. The film was then released in 1992 and then after the release and immense success of Pulp Fiction in 1994, Tarantino went on to be a major figure in the film industry.

What films has he made? What are his main values and themes?

Tarantino has 23 writing credits, 30 acting credits, 20 producer credits, 16 director credits and 2 cinematography credits. Popular films he has directed include: Reservoir Dogs (1992), Pulp Fiction (1994), Jackie Brown (1997), Kill Bill Vol.1 (2003), Kill Bill Vol. 2 (2004), Death Proof (2007), Inglourious Basterds (2009), Django Unchained (2012) and he is currently working on The Hateful Eight. His films are best known for their extreme violence, a lot of which is suggested off screen which increases the intensity because the audience are given the opportunity to have gruesome imagery in their minds. He also makes references to cult movies and television and makes use of non-linear narratives in some of his films including Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs. Smaller trademarks in his films include long lasting scenes, a scene at the beginning of the film before the main titles are shown, restaurant scenes and his protagonists are often violent tempered and will overcome the antagonist using brutality. The major theme expressed in most of Tarantino's films is revenge and 'repaying evil with evil' and other common themes are: violence, secrecy, hatred, trust, betrayal, friendship, murder and death. 

What awards has he won? 

Quentin Tarantino has won 122 awards and has received 103 nominations. These awards include 2 Oscars for best writing and original screenplay for both Pulp Fiction and Django Unchained, 2 Golden Globes for best screenplay again for both Pulp and Django, and 2 BAFTA awards for best original screenplay (Pulp and Django). 

Controversy between Quentin Tarantino and Spike Lee: 

There has been some major controversy between Quentin Tarantino and Spike Lee, firstly as Lee is strongly against Tarantino's incorporation of the n-word in a lot of his films and in Jackie Brown, Lee calculated his use of the word to be 38 times. However, it is Django Unchained, which is based around slavery, that caused the largest amount of controversy between the two men. Lee claimed that he would never watch the film because it would be disrespectful to his ancestors and he expressed his hatred towards the film on twitter by writing: "American Slavery Was Not A Sergio Leone Spaghetti Western. It Was A Holocaust. My Ancestors Are Slaves. Stolen From Africa. I Will Honor Them." 

Spike Lee 


Who is he?

Spike Lee is an African-American film director, producer, writer and actor born in Atlanta, Georgia on 20 March, 1957. He was born to Jacqueline Carroll, a teacher of arts and black literature and William James Edward Lee III, a jazz musician and composer. 

Where did he train?

Spike Lee studied at John Dewey High School in Brooklyn then after enrolled at Morehouse College which is a historically black college. It was here he completed his first student film called Last Hustle in Brooklyn and he graduated with a BA in mass communication whilst taking film classes at Clark Atlanta University. In 1982, he earnt a Master of Fine Arts in film and television at New York University Film School and he won a Student Academy Award for his thesis film, Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads. 

What films has he made? What are his main values and themes?

Spike Lee has 61 directing credits, 58 producing credits, 16 writing credits and 16 acting credits. Popular films he has directed include: She's gotta have it (1986), School Daze (1988), Do the Right Thing (1989), Jungle Fever (1991), Malcolm X (1993), Get on the Bus (1996), He Got Game (1998), Bamboozled (2000), 25th Hour (2002), Inside Man (2006), Miracle at st. Anna (2008), Oldboy (2013) and Da Sweet Blood of Jesus (2014). His production company is called 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks and it has produced over 35 films since 1983. Lee's films are deep and meaningful and they explore themes that relate to him including: race relations, colorism in the black community, the role of media in contemporary life, urban crime and poverty and more political issues. Common trademarks of Lee include: he frequently casts himself, he makes use of direct mode of address within his characters (they stare directly into the camera) and he makes his characters look as if they are floating or gliding by placing them on dollies, sometimes with the camera as well. 

What awards has he won?

Spike Lee has won 39 awards and has received 53 nominations. These awards include a BAFTA special award, an Innovator award at the American Black Film Festival, a Black Movie Award for the best director in Inside Man and a Prize of the Ecumenical Jury- Special Mention award for Jungle Fever at Cannes Film Festival. 

Compare and Contrast: IB & MASA

The two films I am going to be comparing and contrasting in this analysis are Inglourious Basterds and Miracle at St. Anna. Inglorious Basterds was directed and written by Quentin Tarantino and produced in 2009 by Lawrence Bender whereas Miracle at St. Anna was directed by Spike Lee, written by James McBride and produced a year earlier in 2008 by Roberto Cicutto, Spike Lee and Luigi Musini. They both have different production companies, the ones for IB being The Weinstein Company, Universal Pictures and A Band Apart and the ones for MASA being 40 Acres and A Mule Filmworks, On My Own, Rai Cinema and Touchstone Pictures. The budget for IB ($75 million) was significantly larger than that for MASA ($45 million) and this may be because Quentin Tarantino is a very successful director whose film has A-list actors such as Brad Pitt and Christoph Waltz so the box office returns are expected to be higher therefore meaning the film is given a larger budget. These expectations were correct and the box office for IB was $321.5 million whereas for MASA, the box office was lower than the budget and it came to $9.3 million which shows the production companies expected it to be much more popular than it turned out to be.  

Quentin Tarantino 

The work of Quentin Tarantino and Spike Lee definitely contrasts however, one of the main similarities I noticed within the films they have directed is their embedded themes, especially the themes of crime and violence and this is shown in many of their previous films. For example: in 1989, Spike Lee directed ‘Do the Right Thing’ which is about a hot summer’s day in Brooklyn in which a simple complaint at a restaurant causes racial violence to take place, resulting in the worse being brought out in everyone. He also directed ‘Inside Man’ in 2006 in which the narrative revolves around crimes, heists and hostage situations. In 1992, Quentin Tarantino directed ‘Reservoir Dogs’ which is about a jewellery heist that goes wrong and the surviving criminals suspect that one of them is an undercover cop. Tarantino additionally directed Kill Bill Vol.1 (2003) and Vol.2 (2004) in which ‘The Bride’ awakens from a coma after four years to discover her baby is gone so seeks revenge on a team of assassins who betrayed her and Vol.2 continues her quest. All of these films strongly explore the themes of crime and violence which shows it is something both directors like to embed into their work which they can then go on to re-present to their audiences based on their own perspectives. Of course, there are many differences between the work of Quentin Tarantino and Spike Lee. Tarantino’s films make very strong use of graphic violence, sometimes mixed with humour, blood and gore with a key theme of human suffering running throughout the majority of them whereas, Lee’s films deal with controversial social and political issues such as race relations, urban crime and violence. There has been a large controversy between Lee and Tarantino regarding Tarantino’s most recent film, Django Unchained (2012) in which Lee said he would not be watching it because it would be disrespectful to his ancestors and he quotes: “My ancestors are slaves. Stolen from Africa. I will Honor Them.”

 Spike Lee 

The shared genres for Inglourious Basterds and Miracle at St. Anna are adventure, drama, war, action and crime with IB having the additional genre of black comedy. Both films are set in World War II during a German-occupied Europe however they are based in different countries with IB being in France and MASA being in Italy. The narrative of Inglourious Basterds could be described as ‘fantasy like’ because it allows the Jews to get their own back on the Nazis which provides the audience with their desired outcomes to war. The film is split into chapters and it begins with “Once upon a time- in a Nazi occupied France” which I believe shows that Tarantino wants people to know that IB will be a fantasy film with WWII iconography. It is made up of two narrative strands which are taking place at the same time. Firstly, a group of 8 Jewish-American soldiers plan to sneak into France as civilians to kill Nazi leaders and carve a swastika into the heads of those they do not kill; one of the male protagonists, Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) orders each of the eight soldiers to owe him one hundred scalps of dead Nazis. Secondly, a young Jewish refugee, Shosanna (Melanie Laurent) witnesses the killing of her family by the antagonist, Col Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz) and makes a tight escape at the beginning of the film. Four years later, she plans her revenge which is to burn down her cinema when a German movie premiere takes place and this premiere catches the attention of the eight soldiers (known as the basterds) meaning on that night, their paths cross to reveal a gripping ending.

Spike Lee on the other hand takes a completely different approach to World War II and wants to make it clear that African-Americans also fought in the war so his narrative revolves around four black American soldiers called Aubrey (Derek Luke), Bishop (Michael Ealy), Hector (Laz Alonso) and Train (Omar Benson Miller)-known as the Buffalo soldiers who are the survivors of crossing the Tuscany’s Serchio River which leads them into German territory. They become trapped in a Tuscan village which contains a boy named Angelo (Matteo Sciabordi), an attractive woman called Renata (Valentina Cervi), partisans that include a traitor and a local legend. The stories and brutal killings which take place in this village all link to why Hector shoots Rodolfo (Sergio Albelli) in a bank 40 years later which is shown at the beginning of the film.

One major difference I noticed in these two narratives is the protagonists. Inglorious Basterds has straight, white, middle-aged males for its protagonists which is typical of our dominant ideology and this may give audience the false idea that black people did not fight in the war whereas Lee took the opposite route by using four African-American protagonists to offer the audience a fair representation and being an African-American himself, it is not a surprise that he take a patriotic approach. IG seems to provide us with a negative representation of black people as only one is seen in the whole film (Marcel played by Jacky Ido) and he is the caretaker of the cinema which represents African-Americans as having a ‘weak’ and meaningless role during WWII. Contrastingly, Lee represents white people as racist and disrespectful because the Buffalo Soldiers are treated awfully, as if they are worthless. A similarity I noticed is the stereotypical representations of women in both films. Although the female protagonist in IB has a strong character because she is shown to be capable of burning down a cinema with little help which therefore portrays her as independent, the very first scene has a negative representation of women. It begins with a peaceful establishing shot of a farm and I feel this is excellent use of mise-en-scene because it draws the audience in as they are provided with realism and a relatable setting. We then see Perrier Lapadite (Denis Menochet) cutting at a tree stump with an axe, then it cuts to his wife hanging out the washing which portrays men as strong so have to do the ‘hard, manly work’ and women as domestic housewives who are less capable than men. In MASA, Renata is seen by Aubrey and Bishop as a beautiful woman and the two of them fight over her, mainly due to her looks so therefore she is being sexualised in the film to create the common themes of love, lust and sex. Her only purpose is to been seen as a sex object, who wears revealing clothes resulting in her being gawked at by the men in the film and by those in the audience. This negative representation of women is often seen in Spike Lee’s films and although he has tried to create a sense of equality in MASA, he has still not been successful in creating female equality (in my opinion).  

The themes and key sequences in both films really helped to confirm their main values and messages which I definitely see as contrasting. The themes in Inglorious Basterds are much more obvious and include revenge, death, war, violence, conflict, freedom, escape and secrecy whereas the themes in Miracle at St. Anna go slightly deeper and include innocence, conflict, revenge, war, betrayal, loyalty, humanity, sex, patriotism, underdog and death.  The shared themes of death, war and conflict are make clear through the goory, intense and hard-hitting combat scenes in both films, however I believe Tarantino has made them more explicit by showing everything ‘how it is’ whereas Spike has made them more implicit by making a stronger use of hidden meanings that make the audience think. For example, there is a scene when Train is being told to leave Angelo with Renata but he refuses to do so and although on the outside this shows how much he cares for him, on the inside it represents the inner conflict Train is having with himself regarding whether it is for the best if he keeps the boy. One of the soldiers then tries to grab Angelo and Train grabs and strangles him. This is a very key scene because the man’s face is perfectly in line with the sleeping man mountain and someone says “it’s the sleeping man” which implies that the spirit of the sleeping man lies within Train which is why he is so determined to protect and look after Angelo.

I believe the main themes in Inglorious Basterds are revenge and secrecy as it shows a ‘what if’ portrayal of war away from the battlefields and it shows what goes on ‘behind the scenes’. The beginning and end scenes strongly explore the theme of revenge and they help to link one of the messages of the Jews getting their own back and giving the Nazis what they deserved together. The beginning scene is extremely intense and this is enhanced by the flowing dialogue between Landa and Lapadite which engages the audience as they will have full focus on their conversation. This builds up to the goory and sudden shootings of Shosanna’s family and as she escapes, the audience understand that she will never forgive the Nazis for what they have done so will be keen to get her revenge. The very last scene clearly sums up the message of the Jews getting payback on the Nazis and it is clear that Tarantino has created a film that reflects how he wanted WWII to end. It ends with a low angle shot of Raine and one of his soldiers marking Landa with a swastika and this shot firstly represents their superiority so therefore portrays Jews as powerful and in control and the Nazis as weak and helpless. It secondly links the narrative back to the beginning scene in which Landa was the one in power so this juxtaposition is used to help Landa understand how he made the Jews feel. These messages are very different to what I believe is the main message being expressed in Miracle at St. Anna. I think Spike Lee only had good intentions and was trying to show that war is never good and violence is always wrong and I also think he is implying that war brings out the best and worst in people. It brings out loyalties and friendships and is reflected in the character of Hector who 40 years later, still remembers what his friends did for him during the war so wants to kill the man who gave them harm. However, war also brings out the worse in people as it dehumanises them when they are given the power of killing and they over-use the control they are given which results in people’s lives being destroyed.

Overall, I really enjoyed both Inglourious Basterds and Miracle at St. Anna as they both have strong and gripping narratives which drew me in. All of the performances were excellent and I felt very emotionally attached to the characters, especially in MASA in which Omar Miller’s performance stood out for me because his bond with Angelo was very touching and the performance that stood out for me the most in IB was definitely Christoph Waltz who’s cunning character helped to represent Nazis as truly evil and his role was very believable. Although the messages and values in MASA are more meaningful and heartfelt, I personally preferred Inglourious Basterds as I am a big fan of Tarantino’s style of film making and his fantasy based narrative helped me to find the film more entertaining. I would therefore give IB a rating of nine out of 10 and MASA a rating of eight out of ten and I would definitely recommend both of these films to friends and family. 

The Grand Budapest Hotel Review

The Grand Budapest Hotel is an adventure, comedy and drama film directed and written by Wes Anderson and inspired by the writings of Stefan Zweig. It was produced by Wes Anderson, Jeremy Dawson, Steven Rales and Scott Rudin on March 7, 2014 with a running time of 100 minutes. The film has been very successful and it won four Oscars, one Golden Globe and five BAFTA’s along with receiving 127 nominations across a variety of award ceremonies and 95 awards in total. Wes Anderson is also known for directing films such as Moonrise Kingdom, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Darjeeling Limited and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.  Starring Ralph Fiennes (M. Gustave), Tony Revolori (Zero), F. Murray Abraham (Mr. Moustafa), William Dafoe (Jopling) and Adrien Brody (Dmitri), The Grand Budapest Hotel is a stylish, beautifully shot film, showing the past adventures of Gustave, a concierge at a famous hotel and Zero, the lobby boy, which took place between the first and second World Wars. It explores the development of their friendship and how they worked their way through different obstacles together.

The cinematography and editing definitely stood out for me the most, with each shot being just as stunning as the next. From smooth pans to dramatic low angles, a lot of planning clearly took place in order to create such a perfect flow and movement to the film. The performances were also incredible, especially from Ralph Fiennes who provided us with many humorous moments which were truly refreshing. These moments would often consist of small remarks and gestures and in my opinion, the film would not have been the same without them because they made it even more entertaining and enjoyable to watch. However, I did notice a slight mistake during one scene in which a conversation is taking place between Gustave and Zero. Two camera shots are mainly used to show this conversation which are a medium shot of Zero and a wide shot of the two of them. In the medium shots, Zero’s bag strap goes across his chest and in the wide shots, it hangs over his shoulder.

(Spoiler alert) There were many scenes which I particularly enjoyed, one of them being the chase sequence that took place in the museum between Gustave and Jopling because it was very tense and gripping, especially with the dominant sound of footsteps throughout which meant I was constantly wondering what was going to happen next. I really liked the goriness at the end of the scene when Jopling slices Gustave’s fingers off by shutting the door on them because it was very unexpected and the close up of the fingers helped to make it even more gruesome. The overall feel to the film was spectacular and the scenes which took place inside the Budapest Hotel or around it were visually outstanding with a fantasy and almost ‘too perfect’ feel to them with a strong use of the colour pink and snowy scenery. It allowed the audience to escape from reality and immerse themselves in a world full of creativity. Additionally, I thought it was very clever how the lobby boy was named ‘Zero’ because as the film develops, we discover that his family died in the war and he started from nothing to get to where he was in the present time and I believe this represents how there is always hope for anyone.

Overall, I loved the creative and humorous side to The Grand Budapest Hotel and I feel the director of photography, Robert Yeoman did an amazing job. The narrative was mostly intriguing however at times, I found it slightly hard to follow but despite this, I am still interested to watch other films by Wes Anderson. My favourite quote was: “There are still faint glimmers of civilization left in this barbaric slaughterhouse that was once known as humanity” because it was repeated near the beginning and end of the film and I found it effective and meaningful. I would give it a rating of 8 and I would probably recommend it to other people. 

Digital Storyboard

The Selfish Giant Analysis

In this analysis, I am going to be focusing on how and why the director creates meaning by her use of themes and micro-features: cinematography, sound, Mise-En-Scene, performance and editing.

The Selfish Giant is a 91 minute, social-realism, crime drama directed and written by Clio Barnard and produced by Tracy O’Riordan. It was produced on the 25th October, 2013 in the UK. It is based upon a novel of the same title which was written by Oscar Wilde. Clio Barnard has also directed a film called ‘The Arbor’ which was filmed in Bradford which is the same filming location as The Selfish Giant. I personally believe that this film is aimed at teenagers who are aged fifteen and above because it is very intense and we are introduced to a vulnerable world, drowning in poverty, that we may not normally see or hear about and Clio Barnard does an excellent job of displaying the brutal realities of such a world and not at any point does she shy away from showing us these realities. The film stars Conner Chapman (Arbor), Shaun Thomas (Swifty- Arbor’s best friend), Sean Gilder (Kitten- the scrap dealer the two boys meet), Rebecca Manley (Michelle ‘Shelly’ Fenton- Arbor’s Mother) and Elliott Tittensor (Martin Fenton- Arbor’s older brother). It is about two thirteen year old friends, Arbor and Swifty, both from families struggling to make a living, who come across a scrap dealer named Kitten and from there on, get involved with the dangerous life of scrap-dealing in order to provide money for their families, which, towards the end, leads to tragic consequences.

Clio Barnard

(Spoiler Alert) The film has the themes of: family, friendship, class, desperation, determination, theft, greed, anger, betrayal, jealously and survival.  Arbor is greatly dependent on his tablets that help to prevent his outbursts. The audience realise that he has to take medication when his Mother asks him “have you taken your tablet?” during an argument in which Arbor is becoming extremely angry, which suggests that he quite probably has ADHD. Family is a theme because deep down, Arbor clearly has a very close relationship with his Mother and Clio Barnard shows this by the meaningful scenes which feature them hugging and comforting one another. Also, it becomes known that Arbor and Swifty’s main priority is to earn money in order to support their financially deprived families and the audience realise this in a scene during the earlier stages of the film in which the two boys earn quite a large amount of money and instead of spending it on themselves, they plan to spend it on the electricity bill and a new sofa, which was very un-selfish of them. This therefore confirms that the title ‘The Selfish Giant’ does not refer to either of them but in fact is referring to Kitten because all he wanted was to make a large profit from the scrap the boys were collecting and he was not at all concerned about the extreme danger they were both put in. Arbor and Swifty have a very strong friendship and the audience discover this almost immediately in the opening scene in which Swifty is calming Arbor down and a close up is used to show their hands interlocked. Clio Barnard purposely used this shot to represent the tight bond between the two of them and their hands stay interlocked to show how they will always be there for one another which gives the audience false hope that they will stay together throughout the film and will not leave each other’s side. As the film develops, Swifty takes a great interest in horses and appears to be very natural when handling them whereas Arbor does not share this talent and is more interested in collecting as much scrap as possible. Kitten then begins to favour Swifty because of this, leaving Arbor feeling betrayed and jealous. There was a particular shot that stood out for me which displays these themes which is a wide shot of Kitten and Swifty standing next to one another as Arbor is stood away from them, Barnard included this shot in the film to represent how Arbor feels as if he is being torn apart from them because ‘he is not good enough’, despite how hard he tries. Arbor then becomes more and more greedy and desperate to make money and dangerously steals scrap including off Kitten himself which gets him into a large amount of trouble and he is threatened to have his hands put through the wire cutting machine. The Selfish Giant does not focus on Arbor and Swifty trying to escape from the poverty they are surrounded by, like the protagonist in ‘Fish Tank’, but it focuses on them trying to survive in such an economically demanding world.

Throughout ‘The Selfish Giant’, I noticed that there were many still, long-lasting establishing shots of the countryside which showed sheep and horses. This was an area that appeared safe and peaceful, in which the protagonists could escape to in order to be away from the rough, loud, urban environment they were forced to survive in. However, after these establishing shots, the camera would suddenly cut to the shots showing the scrap yard and the noisy, dangerous machines within it which dramatically contrasted with what the audience previously saw. I personally believe that this was to show how working in a scrap yard was extremely risky and dangerous and to emphasize how the way in which Arbor and Swifty made money to support their families was not pleasant at all. Clio Barnard may have used this contrast to clearly separate our expectations from the realities: we expect that thirteen year old boys, like Arbor and Swifty, to be attending school and living a peaceful life in which they feel safe and have a sense of belonging; these expectations are shown by the establishing shots of the countryside. However, in reality, Arbor and Swifty are constantly putting themselves into large amounts of danger in order to support their families and the only place they feel as if they ‘belong’ to may be the scrap yard in which they work in because they were excluded from school and have quite an un-settling family life. Barnard makes it clear that they do not lead the ‘ordinary’ life that is expected of them so keeps the narrative ‘real’ the whole way through to inform the audience that there are no ‘happy endings’ in such a poverty and danger-driven world. I also believe that the establishing shots were used in order for the audience to reflect on what had happened because they were usually shown after an event had occurred and Clio Barnard clearly did not want to cut straight into another ‘busy’ scene and instead wanted to give the audience thinking time. Additionally, there was foreshadowing of the ending by the use of the shots which showed the electricity wires and this was maybe to inform the audience that a key event was going to take place there although when Swifty was electrocuted when helping Arbor to steal underground cable, it was very unexpected and the audience may not have expected such a brutal ending to their friendship.

I thought that Mise-En-Scene played an important role in the film and I thought that the use of weather was very clever. Throughout the majority of the film, the weather was dull and gloomy; the days were rarely sunny, giving the impression that it was quite cold. This was to represent how the protagonists did not lead a ‘blissful’ life but the complete opposite as they were constantly surrounded by negativity. After Swifty passed away, the weather gradually got worse and Arbor is shown sitting outside Swifty’s house in the pouring rain which can have many interpretations. Firstly, Clio Barnard has made use of the rain to represent how Arbor can never have a bright or happy day again now Swifty has disappeared from his life and the rain is a symbol of Arbor’s immense sadness so he is reflecting on what has happened. Secondly, Arbor is constantly outside Swifty’s house in the rain because he feels guilty and is blaming himself entirely for his death. Another key symbol throughout the film is the horses which are often shown being used for the benefit and entertainment of others and are put into extremely dangerous situations such as horse racing on busy roads. I believe that this represents how Kitten was using Arbor and Swifty for his own benefit because he was willing to put them in large amounts of danger in order to make money for himself and to support his scrap-dealing business.

The performances were truly stunning and incredibly believable and the performance from Conner Chapman, who played Arbor, really stood out for me because he was very natural and his acting did not seem at all forced. The scenes in which he was hugging his Mother were very emotional because it showed how much he cared for her and it is almost as if he is taking on the role of a Father because he is looking after her and trying his up-most hardest to support her. My favourite scene was the one towards the end of the film in which Arbor is lying underneath the bed, just like at the beginning, but instead, his older brother is talking to him rather than Swifty. However, it then shows Swifty in the same place he was in during the opening scene because Arbor is remembering him which emphasizes how much he misses him. There is then the same close up which shows their hands interlocked but this time, they let go and Clio Barnard purposely did this to represent how Swifty has left Arbor and is no longer there for him. There was very limited dialogue during this scene and the ones that followed it because the performances and cinematography were more than enough to create meaning and it also gave the audience time to reflect on the film.

Overall, I really enjoyed ‘The Selfish Giant’ because it was gritty, realistic and kept me gripped the whole way through. The narrative was strong, believable and reached a dramatic and unexpected climax at the end. The micro-features within the film were outstanding and I believe that Clio Barnard has created a fantastic and meaningful piece of work. 

The Selfish Giant Analysis- First 10 Minutes

The Selfish Giant is a 91 minute, social-realism, crime drama directed and written by Clio Barnard and produced by Tracy O’Riordan. It was produced on the 25^th October, 2013 in the UK. The ten minute extract of the opening scene stars Conner Chapman (Arbor), Shaun Thomas (Swifty- Arbor’s best friend), Sean Gilder (Kitten- the scrap dealer the two boys meet), Rebecca Manley (Michelle ‘Shelly’ Fenton- Arbor’s Mother) and Elliott Tittensor (Martin Fenton- Arbor’s older brother).

The extract is about two thirteen year old friends named Arbor and Swifty who, on one late night, discover a scrap dealer named Kitten after stealing a cable of wire from two men on a train track. The extract mainly focuses on the relationship between Arbor and Swifty and also the relationship between Arbor and his Mother and older brother, Martin meaning the audience is able to gain an understanding of his home life as well as his personality. The themes of: family, friendship, hate, conflict, anger, dependence, class and crime are expressed within this extract. The theme of family is displayed because the audience are able to discover more about the argumentative relationship Arbor has with his Mother and Martin and it is clear that they do not get on very well, possibly because the Mother is struggling to raise them both in a working class environment. Friendship is shown between Arbor and Swifty and Swifty has the ability to easily calm Arbor down when he is having one of his rages which shows that he must have known him for quite a long time as Arbor will generally follow what he tells him, emphasizing the trust between them. In a way, Arbor is dependent on Swifty in order to keep him under control however; he is also greatly dependent on his tablets that help to prevent his outbursts. The audience realise that he has to take tablets when the Mother asks him “have you taken your tablet?” during an argument in which Arbor is becoming extremely angry, this also suggests that he has serious anger problems and possibly ADHD. Crime is a major theme because Arbor and Swifty have to live in an environment that is surrounded by crimes such as scrap dealing and they cannot help but find themselves intertwined with this crime in order to provide much-needed money for the family.

The Mise-En-Scene within this extract was very effective and it gave the audience a clear idea on the environment Arbor had to live in. The scene set in the kitchen showed a room which was extremely cramped and of a low value, without fancy and modern-looking utensils and with only the basics such as a washing machine and a kettle. This emphasizes the fact that they are working class because it shows their poor living conditions and quality of life. Arbor and Swifty were shown riding on a horse during the night-time which shows that they lead an un-ordinary and dangerous lifestyle because it is not something you are likely to see and it also shows that they have both clearly had a poor up-bringing and do not like spending time at home which is the reason they go out at night. They are seen wearing clothing such as tracksuits that are not of a very high quality which shows how the family do not earn very much money so cannot afford to wear expensive clothing.

There is one particular scene that stood out for me during this extract and it is the scene in which Arbor presents his Mother with the money he earned from the cable wire. When Arbor shows his Mother the money, she seems quite angry and asks him where he got it from to which he responds: “I worked me ass of yeah, for this, for you yeah”. This results in a loud, disruptive argument between the two of them which is an argument that is very likely to occur between a husband and wife. This implies that Arbor is taking on the role of the Father which suggests that Michelle is a single Mother who may well have had a very bad relationship with the Father of Arbor.

The opening scene made very good use of cinematography and sound and it shows Arbor having a rage as Swifty is attempting to calm him down. The audience can hear loud, thumping noises and the sound of shouting which expresses emotions such as anger and frustration therefore meaning that tension is created because the audience do not know why he is so angry so it is a very dramatic way to begin the film. Dark lighting is also used to create mystery and to show that something has gone wrong because the cause of Arbor’s outburst is unknown. During this scene, a close up is used to show Arbor and Swifty’s hands interlocked and this shot is used to represent their friendship and their extremely close bond that they share with one another. Another example of when sound is used effectively is throughout the film when Arbor is constantly swearing which is not appropriate for someone of his age. He has clearly been influenced by those around him, especially his older brother who is often seen swearing and it shows that your language and behaviour is usually affected by those you spend a lot of time with and those who are supposed to be your role models and within this extract, Martin is one of the only ‘role-models’ that Arbor has. The dark lighting during the train-track scene was used to show that the men there, who originally had the cable of wire, were being very secretive as they were committing a crime and therefore they did not want to be noticed by anyone. When Arbor and Swifty discover Kitten, a low angle shot is used to show Swifty on the horse which shows how he feels more in control when on one and therefore he is displaying superiority because he is ‘looking down’ on everyone else as they look up at him.

Overall, I really enjoyed this short extract because without even watching the film, I was able to gain an understanding of the characters, especially Arbor, and the environment they are forced to live in. It was a very strong opening scene with clear themes, brilliant Mise-En-Scene and effective cinematography which has made me want to watch the film as I feel very ‘drawn in’ by this extract.